Greater German Reich
The Greater German Reich (GGR), or simply Germany, is large, national socialist nation located in west-central Europe. The nation itself consists of 40 states, and the nation's capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 696,265 square kilometres (432,639 sq mi), and with a population of some 153.2 million people, the largest in Europe. The nation is governed by the Führer, the current one as of 1981 being Ulrich Fauner. Following the end of the Second World War, the Allies agreed that dividing Germany would be more trouble than it was worth, and given the fact the German colonists sent out by the Nazi government remained in the regions they settled, moving back to Germany proper would be too difficult and too exhausting for the already beleaguered governments of the victorious side. Thus, a puppet government was put in place up until 1949, in which the Allies felt that Germany was "safe enough" to run on its own. The entire idea was that not giving the Germans a reason to fight another was as was the result from the First World War, would prevent s third one from happening in the future. Germany has since recovered from all of the damage wroung upon it, and was allowed by the Allies as part of their goal to keep the Germans placate, to maintain a more "moderate" version of the still popular Nazi party, which is still known as the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP). The nation has managed to rebuild its military, economy, and political power, and remains very much the superpower it was during the war. It still holds its many racist political views, though it was toned down during the Cold War so as not to give either side an excuse to invade the GGR again. The GGR is a leader in technology and economics, and is largely self-sustaining following the "German Miracle" in 1950. Etymology Following the war, the nation was known simply as Germany, the name "Greater German Reich" removed to so as not to give the Germans' the taste of victory even after their military defeat. After the establishment of the reorganized government in 1949, Großdeutsches Reich was re-adopted as the name of the nation, and has remained as such ever since. Critics in the English-speaking world still refer to the nation as "Nazi Germany" or the "Third Reich", stating that the nation was never truely defeated, and the fact that is current government still loosely follows some of the old Hitler-era doctrines, they do not view the nation as any different that its radical predecessor. History Post-War Era Following their victory in 1945, the Allies meet in Yalta to discuss how to handle defeated Germany. The Soviets sought to claim the German lands in the east for themselves, but the British and the Americans objected to the claim. They stated that such another harsh punishment similar to that of the Treaty of Versailles would only agitate Germany once again, and could possibly lead to yet another world war. The German government had previously established a settlement program in light of Adolf Hitler's desire to create "living space" for the German people, and hundreds of thousands of German citizens settled down in conquered lands, lands which they had not left when the Soviets marched to Berlin. Thus, the Germans constituted a large portion of the population in the many of the conquered lands. Thus, a proposal was agreed upon. The Germans living in the area termed "Greater Germany", would be allowed to keep that land, though all other lands would be returned to their former owners. This left the Czechs and Poles out of their homelands to placate the Germans. While they lost out once again, the idea that keeping the Germans quite and content would have lasting benefits in the long-run. The Nazis, despite their crimes and the war they started, were still highly popular with much of the population, still reminiscing over the good the Nazis did for Germany (such as pratically wiping out unemployment, saving the economy, restoring Germany to its glory for some time). Thus, the Nazi party would also be allowed to remain, though many reforms would be taken to make it "nation-friendly". The some of the Allies reforms to the Nazi Party included the capture and prosecution of war criminals, the removal of stigmatized symbols used by the Nazis, the removal of many the party's anti-semitic policies, and the installment of party leader "approved" by the Allies. These reforms, while not popular, were not negotiable, and thus placed upon the organization by force. For three years, the party underwent major reforms which saw it neutered until it was a party agreeable to the Allies' taste. However, these many reforms would only last until they felt that the nation was capable of working with the world, at least that what they hoped. The establishment of a more "German-friendly" government took place behind the Allies' nose. By that time, they had no more interest in overseeing the German issue. Rebuilding & the Wirtschaftswunder During the Allies' administration of Germany, they sought out a man who would be more controllable and predictable than Hitler, and they assumed they got their man in 1949. The man whom the Allies approved to lead the nation once they left was Edgar Raeder, a former colonel in German military, and a supposed opposer to Hitler's rule (though this is what he stated himself). He placed in control of the nation in 1949, in which the Allies took their leave, though they warned that they would be watching for any signs of aggression closely. With that thought in mind, Raeder, assuming the vacant position of Führer, much to the disappointment of the West, sought to rebuild the nation he had foughten for in war. To accomplish that goal, he knew that it had to be done with little interfernce from the Allies, and had to be done by the Germans alone. Shortly after becoming the new Führer, Raeder moved to rebuild the nation's economy, which for the first two years was not allowed to be rebuilt while the Allies' JCS 1067 was in effect. The JCS 1067 directed American forces of occupation in Germany to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany". The Allies dismantled most of Germany's coal and steel factories, and the equipment had then been removed from 706 manufacturing plants. However, the new government took steps to rebuild the country's stock capital, and as a result, the economic output of the nation increased at stunning rates. The very high capital investment rates aided by the low consumption and a very small need to replace capital gains given the already small capital stock, drove the economic recovery of Germany through the 1950s, leading to the beginning of what was known as the Wirtschaftswunder, German for "economic miracle". The Germans had to pay reparations to the Allies, which saw a massive loss of German patents at home and abroad, which was done primarily to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness. Several of the Nazi commanders managed to hide much of the technical knowledge the Allies sought to exploit for themselves, and saved much of the technology developed by them during the war for Germany. During the more than two years that the Allies went through German intellecutal property, no industrial research in Germany was allowed, but this was countered by the hasty planning and action of the commanders, who once Germany was able to hold its own, developed the technology to greater leaps and bounds by the modern day. The "unofficial contributions" of the American occupation force of more than 150,000 men, earning nearly four Deutsche Marks to the dollar, spent their wages buying beer, cars, food, luxury goods, and paying for prostitutes, lead to the huge input of several billions of dollars. This massively overshadowed the $1.4 billion dollars of aid, and the $1.1 billions dollars the Germans had to pay as reparation for the war. The Korean War aided the nation economically as the Germans' skilled labour and quality goods helped deflect the issues that came about with the global shortages as the war in Korea raged on. This helped Germany to more than double the value of its exports during and shortly after the war. Apart from these factors, hard work and long hours at full capacity among the population in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s and extra labour supplied by thousands of "guest workers". From the late 1950s onwards, Germany had one of the world's strongest economies. This aided Raeder in beginning the next phase of his plan, which happened to be the restoration of the military might lost after World War II. Return of the Wehrmacht Geography Climate Environment Politics Government The Reichskansler and Chancellery are the overall political institutions in the Reich. Numerous ministries and officies controlling the nation are controlled by way of the leadership in the NSDAP, members of whom have a firm powerbase in the running of the country, and hold great deals of influence. However, all members are fanatically loyal and subserviant to the Fuhrer himself, and thus all control in centered in his hands, and his alone. Structure Rebuilding Hitler's disorganized yet somewhat successful governmental policies, the new government established a system where all posts organized to handle their fields of expertise successfully, yet are autonomous effort for the central government not to be held accountable for the actions of a single branch. This means if commander or politican (usually both given the structure of the party and the military), does something foolish, the government need only remove him from public eye, and replace him with another, thus deflecting any blame and leaving the branch itself respnsible for policing its own activities. While confusing to most observors, the entire system is known as "working toward the Fuhrer", in which the heads of the government posts feud over the Fuhrer's favor. This ensures both maximum loyalty, and prevention of a power struggle, as the head only has control of his branch so long as the Fuhrur permits it. Law & Criminal Justice Foreign Relations Military Economy Science & Technology Transportation Energy Demographics Ethnic Homogeneity Language Religion Health Education Culture Art Music Cuisine Media Sports Category:21st Century World